Eighteen-year-old Ptolemy Freeman is a mechanical genius living in Boston with his ne'er do well brother during the worst winter he's ever experienced. It's an unforgiving place but to a freed slave it seems like an Eden of opportunity. It's also a far cry from the South Carolina rice plantation he'd been born on. But even with everything he's ever wanted just within his reach he can't stop thinking of the girl he left behind. Seventeen-year-old Sarah Morning has never met anyone whose skin she didn't get under. She's turned keeping people at a distance into an art and even though she can recite Homer's Iliad in English, Greek and French she's still a slave, and skin as pale as the women she serves won't change that. So she works quietly, serves diligently, and tries every day to turn her aching heart to stone. But when her mistress receives a mysterious letter from the boy she can't seem to forget, everything changes and she starts to do the most dangerous thing she's ever done...hope. Follow Ptolemy and Sarah through secret letters, a heist, and two jailbreaks as they battle slave catchers, their own families and each other in order to be together again.
Activities:
Write an alternate epilogue. What do you think could have happened differently for the couple once they arrive in Philadelphia?
Write a letter to the couple from the perspective of one of the characters "left behind".
Imagine you're the editor of an independent newspaper during the 1850's. Write an article retelling the story of Ptolemy and Sarah. You can pretend you've interviewed the couple or heard the story secondhand.
Imagine your'e an abolitionist and you've gathered your supporters for a meeting. Write a speech that supports the end of slavery where Ptolemy and Sarah's story is detailed.
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